Happy Birthday to my beautiful 3-year-old daughter Raelyn today. It’ll be official at exactly 4:08 PM this afternoon, but I can’t resist a chance to spoil my birthday girl!

I was initially going to title this post “Raelyn, the first thousand days” until I realized she’s 1,096 days old today.

Yes, I did the math.
Yes, I took the leap year (2004) into account.
Yes, I’m that dorky.

I don’t normally do much Dad-blogging here, and I feel kinda guilty about that. I have a great kid whom I should totally brag about more often. More bragging and more pictures, maybe that should be my new motto.

In any event, 3 years goes by incredibly quickly and I wanted to share a few things about my favorite girl in the entire world:

1. I secretly (actually quite openly) love the way she still mispronounces certain words.

She still puts an “ST” in place of a “TH” for some words; “stings” for “things” and “stree” for “three”, her new age.

Cutest. Thing. Ever.

For all her mature, grown-up, big girl ways, I love the fact that she’s still this little kid learning the world.

2. OCD Threes

Terrible Twos meet OCD Threes. Independence is a double-edged sword, but it does get the dog fed and certain other household chores done by someone other than me.

Granted, I can only enter certain doors, Raelyn must lead all entrances and exits and “ritual” isn’t quite a strong enough word to describe our morning and “bed time”, but it works.

Ah, the joys of children.

3. Her “cheese” smile

Some parents want “easy” smiles or natural-looking poses.

Not me.

Give me the hyper-extended teeth and lips and the squinty eyes any day. She’s only 3 once, you know.

4. Counting

We count everything now. Stairs, fingers, objects outside and inside the car; everything.

Last night, Raelyn even made Jenn and I count out our ages. If she could count to 3, Jenn and I had to count to 29.

I gotta tell ya, if having a 3-year-old isn’t evidence enough that you’re getting older, try counting your age out loud some time.

You should have seen Raelyn’s eyes widen. You would’ve thought we’d just counted to 100!

I have so many other little and big things to share, I feel incredibly guilty that I don’t do it more often.

Things go by so quickly I really feel like I’m forgetting things before I have a chance to write them down, take a picture of them, or record them on audio/video so I can remember them.

Raelyn, I love you. I’m going to be a better Dad for you by remembering you more often here. Folks need to know how much you mean to me and Mom and how special you are.

Happy third birthday, Raelyn!